Manila – Yahoo! Southeast Asia puts social media at the core of its editorial strategy as part of its plans to engage a wider audience.
As the place where over 500 million people visit every month, Yahoo!’s goal is to bring together social experiences from across the web in a single place. Communities tied together by services such as Twitter, Facebook and Friendster are the engines of the "Now" revolution, as the consumption of news shifts from finding out "what happened" to "what’s happening right now."
Yahoo! wants to be at the center of that flow, helping connect people to the news and to easily discover new information. “Social media is a game changer in journalism," says Yahoo! Philippines Country Editor Erwin Oliva. "Instead of being on the receiving end of information, people can now engage with the news as it happens and even make their own headlines."
To build momentum ahead of the May elections in the Philippines, Yahoo! recently hired Joey Alarilla, a prominent blogger and journalist. Alarilla will be working alongside the fast-moving editorial team led by Oliva, who himself was among the editors behind the online news pioneer INQUIRER Interactive.
Yahoo! is tapping into the groundswell of change around the way the Philippines elections are covered. The May 10th elections will be an important test bed for this new social media editorial strategy. People can follow, and drive the conversation at Yahoo’s Purple Thumb election site, www.yourpurplethumb.com.
"Yahoo! recognizes how social media is bringing the human element back to news,” explains Yahoo! Philippines General Manager, Jack Madrid. "Our content is not just derived from traditional news feeds, but sourced directly from the online community."
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